Maha Discovery Conference: Interview with Josh Dotzler from Abide

Tom Houghton:

You are listening to “The Building Code,” I’m Tom Houghton.

Paul Wurth:

I’m Paul Wurth.

Tom Houghton:

And today, we are live at Maha Discovery.

Paul Wurth:

What the heck is Maha Discovery, Tom?

Tom Houghton:

Maha Discovery is a great one-day conference here in Omaha, Nebraska, where people are discovering how to build a better future.

Paul Wurth:

What are you building?

Tom Houghton:

What am I building? I’m building this podcast right now.

Paul Wurth:

That’s right.

Tom Houghton:

Good stuff. We’re joined on our podcast today by one of the speakers of Maha Discovery. His name is Josh Dotzler. He works for Abide. You started Abide, though.

Josh Dotzler:

I mean, I was two years old when I started Abide-

Tom Houghton:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

Early.

Josh Dotzler:

So I mean, I was… came out the womb and had-

Paul Wurth:

Entrepreneur from the go.

Josh Dotzler:

… incredible vision.

Paul Wurth:

That’s amazing.

Josh Dotzler:

My parents started it, but I’ve been a part since the beginning.

Tom Houghton:

Awesome. Good stuff. Well, we’re going to dive in and talk about all things Abide, and we want to know about your story, and your construction background a little bit. Obviously that’s a highlight for our listeners, who love to hear about construction.

Josh Dotzler:

I know a lot about construction. I thought about bringing my tool belt, but I was like, “That might be a little too much, that might be too extra.”

Tom Houghton:

We would have welcomed it.

Paul Wurth:

You’re talking to the wrong two guys. Haven’t swung a hammer in a long time.

Josh Dotzler:

I was hoping I was going to learn a little something about construction.

Paul Wurth:

No.

Tom Houghton:

Not today.

Josh Dotzler:

Not today?

Tom Houghton:

Not today. No. Let’s start off first, Josh, give us a rundown of Abide’s mission. What are you guys all about?

Josh Dotzler:

Yeah. So our mission is to revitalize the inner city one neighborhood at a time. And my parents 30 years ago, my dad was a chemical engineer and felt like he wanted to be a part of building a better future. Didn’t know where it was, moved into North Omaha. He’s a white guy from Iowa. Any white guys from Iowa? No, I’m just kidding. My mom’s African-American from Washington DC. And so he moves into this predominantly African-American community, experienced crime, violence. He’s from this small town had never seen it before. And he knew that he wanted to be a part of the solution in some way. And he saw tons of overwhelming problems, but started to just take action in the neighborhood that we lived in and started to see change. And we said, if we can see it in one neighborhood, man, we can see it in more neighborhoods.

Tom Houghton:

That’s awesome. That’s an incredible mission.

Josh Dotzler:

And it really started, I’ll say this, really started through projects. It was a mission of mobilizing people to the North Omaha community. We would find abandoned houses. We would find people who needed their houses fixed up. And so we would literally mobilize people to do work projects. I literally grew up doing work projects.

Tom Houghton:

That was it?

Josh Dotzler:

Swinging a hammer.

Tom Houghton:

That was you.

Josh Dotzler:

We got paid 5 cents to pull nails out of boards.

Tom Houghton:

Like 5 cents per nail?

Josh Dotzler:

5 cents per two by four.

Tom Houghton:

Okay.

Paul Wurth:

Okay.

Tom Houghton:

You could make a buck there.

Josh Dotzler:

Is that a good trade-off?

Tom Houghton:

I mean-

Paul Wurth:

No.

Josh Dotzler:

I guess it depends.

Tom Houghton:

I guess not. Depends on how many nails are in that two by four.

Paul Wurth:

It’s not a good trade off. Probably built character.

Josh Dotzler:

It built a lot of character, that’s right.

Paul Wurth:

There you go. So where did your parents go find people? In the early, early days. Just neighbors? Church?

Josh Dotzler:

So my dad was a part of church, part of a pretty big church in the city and just felt like specifically at his church and people of faith felt like man, people of faith are called to take action where there is need. And so started to mobilize people there, but over the years, businesses and individuals from all over have joined.

Paul Wurth:

That’s great.

Tom Houghton:

That’s awesome. Tell us about the progress you’ve made in this journey. So obviously starting off small.

Josh Dotzler:

Yeah.

Tom Houghton:

You guys build things called Lighthouses. Is that right?

Josh Dotzler:

Yeah.

Tom Houghton:

You want to talk a little about the Lighthouses? Give a little more context there.

Josh Dotzler:

Yeah. Yeah. That’s one of the things that we do. Yeah, started small. I’m one of 14 kids. And so we don’t start too small because we had a lot of us.

Tom Houghton:

You got a team right there.

Josh Dotzler:

But definitely 30 years ago started pretty small. And then over the years, in 2007 our family lived in a neighborhood not too far away from here that the police red lined as one of most violent. And there was an old abandoned building that in the 1800s was a horse and buggy fire station. And my dad drove by it one day, saw this old abandoned building that the city was getting ready to tear down and he said, “I think that could be a place for good things to happen one day.” And he went back to his board, like a good leader does, asked his board and everybody on his board said, “No way.” And my dad, being the entrepreneur that he was, decided to do it anyway, found one person.

Josh Dotzler:

So he purchased this building for hardly nothing. The police said they found dead bodies in this building at one point in time. It’s a 15,000 square foot facility. And with mostly volunteers and donated materials refurbish this place that’s a $1.5 million project for less than $50,000. And that became our model for what a Lighthouse is. It’s taking these old dilapidated houses in neighborhoods, refurbishing them. And then our family moved into that neighborhood and started to intentionally become a part of the solution in that community.

Paul Wurth:

So is that original Lighthouse like a community center then? Or what did it-

Josh Dotzler:

Yeah, it was everything. It was our family, it was a community center. It was honestly, it started very organically. So we started the whole block parties at our house. We started to mobilize people to that location. But then also to that neighborhood. We would do cleanup days. We started to plant gardens. We found other projects in that community. We really started to target that specific area and having a house, that location that our family moved into. I mean, it was bigger than a house, but having that location really created a focus for that community that was pretty powerful.

Paul Wurth:

So how soon did you see that Lighthouse start affecting the community? By way of other neighbors cleaning up their houses and feeling like part of the community, or people coming in because you’ve sort of cleaned it up?

Josh Dotzler:

So it was definitely a process, which I think is so huge because it’s part of a process of building relationships. I mean the beautification, that stuff helps, but ultimately there’s relational equity that you have to build. And so we bought that building in 1993, we moved into it in 1996. In 2007 the police said that neighborhood was one of the most violent. But in 2009 the police came back and said this neighborhood that was once one of the worst is one of the best.

Paul Wurth:

Wow.

Josh Dotzler:

So there was a good 10 plus years of really working, building relationship. We actually did that building, but we also did several other houses in that neighborhood too.

Tom Houghton:

So is this a model that you’ve picked up from somewhere else? What was the origination and then do you have a vision of taking this to other cities? Are you guys already in other cities?

Josh Dotzler:

We are in some other cities. We’ve kind of gone to other cities more organically. People who have worked with us have taken this model, taken it to Florida, have taken it to Kansas City, and other people have come down and learned from what we’re doing. It wasn’t a model that we learned from anybody. Even though we’ve seen people do something similar, it was a model that happened by accident. And it was really my parents saying, “Hey, we want to be a part of the solution in some way. And so we’re just going to try to do what we know how to do practically.” And over the course of time, it was actually after the results came out, that we said, “Let’s turn this into a strategy.” Because before that, it wasn’t a strategy. We actually turned it into a strategy after we saw the results.

Paul Wurth:

So what’s it look like today as a list of your family being involved? Are your parents still heavily involved? And are 12 of the 14? Because I would hate to be those two.

Josh Dotzler:

We’re still trying to go after them. We’re telling them they’re making the biggest mistake of their life. I mean, many of us have played roles in different ways. My parents are still heavily a part. They still live in the same building. My wife and I are a part. My sister Krehauna who’s sitting over here. She’s actually my boss now. Works with us. So a lot of my family has been a part. We’ve got a team of 25-plus people. 51 Lighthouses have been done. We’ve adopted close to a hundred neighborhoods.

Josh Dotzler:

And the strategy I would say has continued to evolve because we just know if we’re going to see this thing really happen, the inner city revitalized, we’ve got to move faster.

Tom Houghton:

That’s incredible. 51 houses?

Paul Wurth:

It’s amazing.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah. So let’s talk about how the renovation of those houses go in. I mean, obviously like you said, you’ve got a big family, but there’s more than that going into this. You want to give us some kind of behind the scenes of how that all works out?

Josh Dotzler:

Yeah. I mean, number one, just so many people come and use their resources. And what we found… We use a lot of volunteers and sometimes that can make the process a little longer. But also the equity, sweat equity that goes into those homes is pretty incredible. So we find a house. Sometimes people will give us and house and say, “Man, this thing is in terrible condition. We don’t want anything to do with it. So we’re willing to give it to you.” And we’re like, “Oh thank you. That’s awesome.”

Josh Dotzler:

And then we’ll engage architects who will donate their time to lay out the house. Which we like to go in, open it up, make it look good. We’ll bring in contractors who will literally donate weeks at a time to reframe, rebuild. I mean, organizations like Thrasher Basement will come in and donate their crew to redo the basements. And then we’ll have to pay for some stuff. But a lot of times we can get people to come in and drywall it. Pella Windows has donated tons of windows for our homes. Nebraska Furniture Mart has donated appliances and flooring. And so different people will come in. HVAC systems have been donated or all the services to put them. In their services and time have been given to us. So a lot of people, I think businesses say, “You know what? We can’t do five houses, but maybe we can do one a year.” And they’ll give their resources to that.

Paul Wurth:

That’s amazing. So what happens when it’s done? Who lives in the house? How does that work?

Josh Dotzler:

Yeah. So for us, who goes into the house is probably the game changer. It’s the most important part. And we have created a process through our events and activities, a funnel system where we want to get leaders to move into these communities. And I’ll talk about it a little later, but we just really believe that in communities like North Omaha, there is a leadership vacuum. And so we’re strategic about who we put in those homes. And then we try to coach them and then give them the resources to intentionally engage their neighborhood.

Paul Wurth:

In a way you want them to be a Lighthouse of a person, right?

Josh Dotzler:

That’s it.

Paul Wurth:

To really get everybody else to come in.

Josh Dotzler:

Yeah, literally. Lighthouse isn’t the physical house. It’s the people bringing life to that community.

Tom Houghton:

That’s awesome. I want to talk a little more about this leadership vacuum because not only are you trying to solve the problem of renovating a neighborhood, you’re also talking about renovating and starting leaders. So can you give us a little bit of insight on how you guys go about that?

Josh Dotzler:

Yeah. I mean, part of it is I would say embedded into the DNA of our organization. My dad, since I was a young person would look at me and say, “Josh, you’re a leader.” I’m like, “Dad, no I’m not, stop.” He’d say, “No, you’re a leader, you’re a leader.” And he would tell me that all the time. And as I grew up through sports and played basketball and that just stuck with me. And for me, I wanted to leave the community.

Josh Dotzler:

And the saying in North Omaha, “Success in life means to move out of the community.” And so we believe we want to shift the paradigm and the culture of the community, but it requires that leaders stay in the community and not leave. And so number one, we do it by creating a culture where guys like myself, I mean, people like my sister Krehauna instead of moving out after college, they decide to move back in. And we’ve seen people sell their house in Dundee, sell their house out West to move to North Omaha. Who does that?

Paul Wurth:

That’s amazing.

Josh Dotzler:

Unless you want to be a part of this kind of bigger cause and bigger purpose. And then we have leadership programs. I mean, we believe so strongly in this development of leadership.

Tom Houghton:

That’s awesome.

Paul Wurth:

It’s similar to what we talk about with Big Omaha and Maha Discovery is we cultivate such big talents here in tech, and then they go to the coast. Like, just stay here and build it here.

Tom Houghton:

Just reinvest. You’re just reinvesting. Which is great.

Josh Dotzler:

And it is kind of hard to sell it sometimes because we don’t have all the things that other cities have. But you start to create momentum. And then before you know it, I mean, you’ve got organizations like Buildertrend… And you talk about culture. I loved… I was talking to somebody who works with you guys about your culture, the culture you’ve created. I mean, you get a buy-in and people are drawn to that. If we’re going to transform a community, we can’t just provide a service. We have to shift the culture. And that’s what our hope is.

Paul Wurth:

Oh, that’s amazing.

Tom Houghton:

That’s awesome.

Paul Wurth:

So what is the future? What is your vision or your company’s vision? And just talk us through that. And of course we want to know how people can help, too.

Josh Dotzler:

So, so for us, we say our vision is that one day in Omaha, Nebraska, there would be a new inner city. That the inner city wouldn’t be known for crime, violence, poverty. We know we can’t do it by ourselves. There’s other organizations that are a part of that too, but we want a vision where people are moving into the community, not out of it. Where there’s safety, there’s stability. And also, I mean you look at right now, the place we’re in, Metro Community. I mean, this is an amazing facility right here in our community. We want to continue to highlight the strengths of the community.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. That’s amazing. So do you have goals? Like in terms of… I don’t know, sort of what you do with goals. Is it number of Lighthouses, is it number of volunteers or people that can help you out? What’s that look like?

Josh Dotzler:

Yep. So there’s kind of two sides of it. Number one is goals to mobilize more people. And so we have goals on… I mean, we recognize that the success of our mission is directly related to the amount of people we can mobilize. And so we’re saying we’ve got to mobilize more people. At one point in time, our goal was by 2027 was to mobilize 70,000 people. And that number is probably growing because we just realized we need people of all different places. And then within the community, Lighthouses, leaders we’re developing and raising up and in lives that we’re impacting.

Paul Wurth:

It’s amazing. Count me mobilized.

Josh Dotzler:

Yeah. There’s two more.

Tom Houghton:

We’re in.

Josh Dotzler:

Come on.

Paul Wurth:

Who else is mobilized out there?

Tom Houghton:

Who else? Yeah, let’s see those hands. Lots of hands being raised. Six people. All right, guys, go.

Paul Wurth:

That’s better than better when you started.

Tom Houghton:

Every person counts.

Josh Dotzler:

Come on. It just went up to 70,006 people.

Tom Houghton:

There you go. Awesome. Josh, thank you so much for going through everything with us today. We really appreciate what you’re doing here for our community and how you’re revitalizing it, how you’re revolutionizing it. So thanks for sharing that with us here on “The Building Code.” We will continue to support you guys in however we can, so we’ll make sure we’ll put something in the show notes for the podcast. Make sure you check that out at buildertrend.com/podcast and you’ll see information on how you can help Abide.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. But just tell the audience too. Is there a website or where is the easiest, fastest way to-

Josh Dotzler:

Yeah the easiest way abideomaha.org. You can go there, get information, sign up. And yeah, get in the game. Not only changes the community, but I believe it changes us, too.

Paul Wurth:

Get in the game.

Josh Dotzler:

For sure.

Paul Wurth:

That’s awesome.

Tom Houghton:

Thank you, Josh.

Josh Dotzler:

Appreciate you guys. Thanks for having me.

Tom Houghton:

Round of applause for Josh.

Tom Houghton:

Love what you heard? Don’t forget to rate and subscribe to our podcast so you can hear from more guests that will benefit your business. Also, please check out our show notes page for more information on what we discussed on this episode. You can find it at buildertrend.com/podcast. Thanks for listening. And we’ll see you next time on “The Building Code.”